With the holidays right around the corner, many businesses will be taking time off next week. Use the checklist below to make sure your office stays safe during the holiday break.

Send a friendly reminder to clients and staff members. Whether or not your business is staying open during the holidays, it’s best not to leave your staff and clients guessing. Go over the holiday work schedule with your staff and inform your clients of any revised holiday dates and hours.

Set your Out of Office Assistant. Remember to provide recipients with alternative associates’ contact information in case of an emergency.

Update your voicemail recording. Let callers know you’re away from the office and provide them with information about who to contact in your absence.

Review your disaster recovery plan. Unless you’re in the retail industry, business demands tend to slow down during the holidays. Take this opportunity to assess, upgrade and modify your business continuity procedures.

Turn off office equipment and decorations. If you and your staff are going to be out of the office for an extended time, unplug printers and computers to save on electricity costs. Also, remember to disconnect any office decorations and throw out flammable trees that could potentially cause a fire if left unattended.

The Southeast is on alert for rare winter tornadoes after storms touched down in Alabama, Lousiana and possibly Mississippi. Although winter tornadoes are rare, tornadoes can and do strike at any time off year, so it’s important that you make sure your business is prepared with a safe room and thorough business continuity plan.

To assess your tornado risk, check out the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety’s tornado frequency map.

History repeated itself in 2006 when the firm failed to produce thousands of copies of emails in relation to an investigation into the firm’s Wall Street business practices. When Morgan Stanley was unable to come up with the emails, the SEC produced a $15 million fine for the firm.

The Takeaway

While each of these organizations mentioned in this series found itself in hot water with regulatory authorities for slightly different reasons, there is one important lesson companies can learn from each of these examples: When it comes to regulatory requirements, it pays to comply.

The next time your business is tempted to cut corners, take a look at the number of zeroes listed in these real-life scenarios. The fines totaled more than $22 million. Is that in your company’s budget?